‘Blue ocean market’: why Brazil is becoming a magnet for Chinese investment

Last Updated on December 9, 2025 4:40 pm

By Ji Siqiin Beijing

With their domestic profits narrowing and production capacity expanding, China’s firms are continuing to widen their overseas footprints in search of new, more lucrative markets. In this series, we examine China Inc.’s next phase of “going global” and the complex, challenging international environment its companies have chosen to enter.

In early November, the chairman of one of China’s top construction machinery makers was spotted touring potential factory sites in Piracicaba, a city in southeastern Brazil.

The visit was another in a string of recent moves by major Chinese companies in the South American nation: food delivery giant Meituan has entered the market via its overseas brand Keeta, electric car maker BYD has started operations at a huge new plant in the northeastern state of Bahia, and TikTok – owned by tech leader ByteDance – has pledged US$37.7 billion to build a data centre in Ceara, another northeastern state.